Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites

[Veronica.Franco]

Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites

09 June 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Paul Marks

I AM continually shocked and appalled at the details people voluntarily post online about themselves." So says Jon Callas, chief security officer at PGP, a Silicon Valley-based maker of encryption software. He is far from alone in noticing that fast-growing social networking websites such as MySpace and Friendster are a snoop's dream.

New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming "semantic web" championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19025556.200


When do they start breaking into our homes and going through our garbage? ... or has that already begun? ...

[katinmn]

1. Why is the Pentagon involved in this???

Their bloated budget goes to shit like this and they can't supply armor and food for the troops?

Why do our so-called representatives fund this?

This is macabre.

[Moderator]

2. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2329789